Veteran trader Peter Brandt has spotted a major breakout for Litecoin (LTC). Litecoin saw an impressive move on Friday as the price printed a huge daily candlestick. The LTC price leaped from a low of $84 on June 30 to a high of $111. The rise was sustained until Saturday, as LTC made intraday highs of $112.67 at the time of writing.
At the time of writing, LTC was up 9% in the last 24 hours to $110. The token is up 20.83% in the last seven days. Litecoin has rejoined the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. LTC sits in the 9th spot with a market capitalization of $8 billion.
Brandt posted a screenshot of the Litecoin/USD daily chart depicting the LTC major move. The veteran trader specifically highlights the move past the $108 key level as important.
This is because a closer look at Litecoin's daily chart reveals this level as one that has hindered Litecoin in the past months. Instances were seen in February and April this year.
LTC halving ahead as eventful quarter closes
The sudden price surge seen for Litecoin appears to be fueled by a skyrocketing hashrate and mounting anticipation of the next "halving" event. According to OKLink, the third Litecoin halving event will happen on or around August 2, 2023. The current block reward for Litecoin will be reduced to 6.25 LTC.
Litecoin had an interesting quarter, setting a new transaction count record. According to IntoTheBlock, for the first time, the Litecoin network processed over 500,000 daily transactions, which is comparable to the number of daily Bitcoin transactions in May. BTC daily transactions reached a record 600,000 in the last quarter.
While traders are excited about Litecoin's recent price action, on-chain analytics firm Santiment warns of a local top formation for LTC as social volume spikes. Santiment observes that LTC social volume spikes often lead to a temporary top.
"Litecoin is under 5 weeks away from its halving, taking place on August 3. Prices have suddenly soared for LTC, blasting off for +26% in just over a day. Watch for mainstream FOMO, as this usually foreshadows local tops until crowds calm down," Santiment wrote.